Lord Moynihan defends life Olympic bans for British drug cheats

Lord Moynihan, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, has defended its policy of imposing lifetime bans from the Olympic Games for athletes under its jurisdiction caught doping. Photograph: Rick Rycroft/AP

The British Olympic Association chairman, Lord Moynihan, has launched his strongest defence yet of its policy of lifetime bans for drug cheats and called for an overhaul of the "toothless" rules of the World Anti‑Doping Agency.

In the wake of LaShawn Merritt's successful challenge of the International Olympic Committee's rule 45 banning athletes from the Games that immediately follows any doping ban of more than six months, the BOA bylaw has come under renewed pressure.

Many experts believe it would struggle to survive if challenged in court by British athletes including the sprinter Dwain Chambers and the cyclist David Millar. But, before a BOA board meeting on Wednesday when the issue will be on the agenda, Moynihan said the bylaw should stay and called for a full review of whether the Wada code was working to deter cheats. He claimed the global agency had failed to fulfil its objectives and "failed to catch the major drug cheats of our time".

Moynihan said: "We now have a situation where drugs cheats will be able to compete in London 2012 and we have to decide if this is the outcome we want: a watered-down and increasingly toothless gesture towards zero tolerance or whether the driving rationale behind the IOC's former rule 45 and the BOA bylaw should be incorporated into a global anti-doping policy so that doping punishments encompass not only sanctions but the wholly separate questions of eligibility for competition, too."

Moynihan, whose comments are sure to rile Wada, called for an "informed review" of the global body. He said: "Regrettably, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the 10 years since its creation, Wada has been unable to achieve its own, well-intentioned objectives.

"The inflexible penalty system and a failure to recognise a clear distinction between cheating and clerical errors or mistakes has alienated many athletes who feel they have been stigmatised by the system as 'guilty before proven innocent'."

The chairman argues that the BOA's bylaw, now the only lifetime sanction in the world, is robust but fair because it punishes those who knowingly cheat while offering a route of appeal for those who have unknowingly ingested an illicit substance or missed tests.

Wada wrote to the BOA in the wake of the Merritt case, suggesting that it reevaluate its bylaw in the wake of the court of arbitration for sport decision on the IOC rule. But Moynihan continues to argue that the two rules are fundamentally different and claims the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, has backed the BOA's ability to apply it.

However, the IOC has also acknowledged that the final say in the matter must rest with CAS and has indicated it will not reappraise the issue until after the 2012 Games.

The BOA is expected to back the continued application of the rule following the board meeting but is steeling itself for a potential challenge from Chambers or Millar. Both are considering their position.

"In recent days much has been made of the fact that there is no room for redemption in the BOA's lifetime ban," Moynihan told the International Federations Forum in Lausanne. "However, I believe we need to ask where in this case is the redemption for the clean athlete denied selection by a competitor who has knowingly cheated, taking the whole 'enchilada' of drugs? There is no national team kit for that clean athlete. No redemption for him."

He also cautioned that athletes could benefit from the residual effects of cheating beyond the length of their ban. "Under the current Wada Code, if he times his two-year ban correctly he is ready to deny another clean athlete selection for the following Olympic Games," he said.

Moynihan claimed Wada should rely more on intelligence to tackle the sources of doping. "Not least because, and the point is worth re-emphasising, the system put in place by Wada has failed to catch the major drug cheats of our time. The likes of Marion Jones, many cyclists and the Balco operation are only a few of those who have been tracked down and prosecuted, not by Wada but by the law enforcement officers."

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